The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-10-15


 comes to her in earnest as intuitively as your rustic maid, and if she is will ing to accept this one, she is no more difficult to woo. She knows men as the geologist knows the strata of the earth; if they like flirting as game, she is not adverse if the man is agree able; if they are sober men of letters, she will match them with matchless reading and culture. If she adapts herself to different types of men, is fickle to some, cultured to others, the best and most devoted to only one, it is her owe sweet personality.
 The western girl, that is, she of the western city, is more closely allied to nature. She lives on the level plains, or the boundless, rolling praries. Her idea of vastness is made sublime, not by an Atlantic, white with the wings of an almost infinite commerce, the very atmosphere of which stamps the New York girls nature with it's peculiarities, but by an endless sea of golden grain, so vast that the sun never rises or sets on it's horizon in her imagination. No, to her imagin- ation, there is no horizon, no bounds, hence few proprieties in life, nothing to which to tie, no traditions ofances- try to demand dignity, nothing but unlimited freedom, and, as it seems to her, unlimited wealth at the command of her very desires. Your eastern 100- millionaire is nothing compared to her father with his thousands. In her vivid imagination, she commands in- finite wealth, gained in the prize ring of wheat deals and food corners, gleaned from boundless soil by an inextricable network of railways. Hence this type of girl is so distinct. She does what she pleases to such an extent that the world calls her wild, reckless, daring, intrepid-but virtu- ous, pure and true woman who can be trusted at the last. Her stature is often heroic, her shoulders broad, her waist not always slender Her face is stamped with individuality, inde- pendence and rugged beauty, it has luscious coloration that the rosiest dawn might envy, her hair is most often light amber shade; her eyes sparkle, but, alas with self conscious intelligence. She is usually tall, and very stable in form, almost matronly in appearance; and she is harshly termed sometimes ar animal woman" Her feet are sometimes proportionate to heroic stature, but not as rule. Her beauty is the fresh, open-air type, and, as may well be imagined, her sons are stalwart, big -boned, strong limbed men of brains. Such is the primary type of the middle-west and northwest of the United States. There is secondary and later type, smaller in stature, which, to tell the truth, in it's attempt to initiate what is supposed to exist in the east, is naturally effeminate and weak. The western girl always attracts attention wherever found, not that she is ab- normal in dress, but on account of her love of laughter, fun and almost wild pranks. She holds chaperone in contempt; chaperone to her is unnecessary in company with congenial men, a necessary institution when she entertains bores. Her intellectuality is yet in a stage of development; at present she is ambitious to possess many species of knowledge, to be a vocalist, an instrumentalist, an artist, housekeeper, wide reader, striving for much, attaining not very much. Whatever else she is, she is endlessly amusing. Her fertile brain is ever devising entertainment for her friends of both sexes. She always has some- thing new with which to impress and startfe the susceptible sex. She likes a vehicle, but must drive her own horse, with dog at her feet, her friends along if possible, but always her dog and coachman. She is seldom an equestrian; there is not enough spread of sail about mere horse |; better for her four horses and a coach, peals of merry laughter, puns, jokes, a hilarious occasion.
 It is to the south where we look for the most refined, most cultured, most elf-possessed, most proper, most glorious girl of the age. She is seldom otherwise than beautiful; often she is pure blonde, with brown eyes and with hair spun of gold by the sun at monday, to the envy of the silk worm more often she is brunette :; most of the dark-eyed Spanish type. If a creole, she is true representative of the southern nations. The southern girl is the most thoroughly learned of her sex; she does nothing by frag- ments; she masters many subjects such is the true type of the land of the mistletoe, the magnolia, the Spanish moss, the red bird and the mocker. She plays all classical music without notes ; to her, Wagner's grand over- ture of "Tannhanser," Schumann's "Traumerei," Liszt's "Rhapsodie Hon. groise," the Grand Fantasie of eDie